A prior art vehicle seat belt is typically mounted to a vehicle body near one side of an occupiable surface of a seat. A seat belt buckle is typically mounted near an opposite side of the occupiable surface. The seat belt is adapted to selectively alternate between a stowed position in which the seat belt is located substantially to one side of the seat to facilitate occupant access to the seat, and an engaged position in which the seat belt extends across the occupiable surface to restrain an occupant of the seat between the seat belt and the occupiable surface. The seat belt is retained in the engaged position by the buckle. An occupant of the seat manually moves the prior art seat belt to its engaged position and engages the buckle with a latch plate connected to the seat belt.
The prior art includes seat belt presenters to make seat belts more visible and more easily accessible for movement to the engaged position. The prior art also includes buckle presenters to improve occupant access to the buckle. However, these prior art buckle presenters typically add significant complexity to the seat structure, make the buckle and its connection to the vehicle body massive and highly intrusive to the occupant, or require a significant amount of packaging space within the vehicle. For example, a prior art seat belt presenter employs a rigid, pivotable member to transmit force from an actuator to the buckle. The pivotable member limits the placement of the seat belt buckle presenter because the pivotable member requires dedicated packaging space in which to pivot.